The fruiting body of Antrodia camphorata (Polyporaceae, Aphyllophorales) is well known in Taiwan as a traditional Chinese medicine. It grows only on the inner heartwood wall of the endemic evergreen Cinnamomun kanehirai (Hay) (Lauraceae) in Taiwan. It is rare and has not been cultivated. The fruiting bodies have been used for treating of food and drug intoxication, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypertension, itchy skin, and liver cancer. Very few biological activity studies have been reported hitherto.
Antrodia camphorata also known as “niu-chang-chih” or “niu-chang-ku” in Taiwan, was recently reported as a new fungus species characterized by the cylindrical shape of its basidiospores appearing in fruiting bodies, weakly amyloid skeletal hyphae, bitter taste and light cinnamon resupinate to pileate basidiocarps, as well as chlamydospores and anthroconidia in pure culture. The growth of this new fungus species is extremely slow and restricted to an endemic tree species, Cinnamomum kanehirai Hay (Lauraceae), as the only host. The detailed characterization and taxonomic position of Antrodia camphorata were described in Wu, S.-H., et al., Antrodia cinnamomea (“niu-chang-chih”), New combination of a medicinal fungus in Taiwan, Bot. Bull. Acad. Sin. 38: 273-275 (1997).
In Taiwanese folk medicine, the fruiting bodies of Antrodia camphorata are believed to have certain medical effects. According to the traditional way, the fruiting bodies are ground into dry powder or stewed with other herbal drugs for oral uptake to treat conditions caused by poisoning, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypertension, skin itches and liver cancer. However, little pharmacological or clinical study in these aspects has appeared in literature to date. Because of the stringent host specificity and rarity in nature, as well as the failure of artificial cultivation, “niu-chang-chih” is very expensive in Taiwan. In recent years, the fruiting bodies of this fungus with high quality have been sold at an extremely high price of around U.S. $ 15,000 per kg.